his post was inspired by a session I listened to called “Revolution postponed: The Arab Spring and Africa” at the just concluded Global Media Forum hosted by Deutsche Welle.Who provides the worldwide acceptable definition of the word ‘Revolution’? Who owns the word? Is it Tunisia, because they pretty much started the wave the world now refers to… The post Af […]

When Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali wrote the classic ‘Nightfall in Soweto’, perhaps he had peeked far into the future and seen the exact similarities between his protagonist and Boko Haram in all their deviousness.When he wrote, “a murderous hand, lurking in the shadows, clasping the dagger, strikes down the helpless victim”, maybe he had seen correctly, but… The […]

Good ideas don’t require proper planning or schedule; nor do they benefit from exhaustingly long meetings and conversations with management. They emerge from experiments, from playing around with things that you care about, things to which you have an emotional attachment. And quite often they need a creative chaotic environment to flourish and grow. However […]

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ONE FOR CHARITY?

So I had a really nice day today! Even though I slept at 3.30am last night (with my eyes shining even then like halogen lamps), and ‘started’ waking up from 8am, I had a nice day. I say ‘started waking up’ because I wasn’t fully awake till 10am, and that was thanks to a dear friend who didn’t stop calling me!! Thank you for waking me Cookie!!

After doing my devotion, I noticed that the heating was out (2nd time in three days) and so I tried calling the office but for some reason, no one picked up! I had started a mini debate in my mind on ‘the advantages and disadvantages of having a bath in the morning’ and truth? The ‘opposing’ side was winning o!

Now apart from getting upset (not really, I was more groggy than angry), I was grateful to God this didn’t happen during winter; I would just have become a ‘weiste’! By the way, isn’t it amazing how viral the ‘Chi gurl/Kilomde/discover me/teiste a peiste’ series have become? The power of social media, transcending distance!

Before I digress, God was merciful and the heating came back on of its own accord so yes, I had a bath! Felt happy this morning, maybe because I spent an extra minute thinking about my family and the wonderful friends I’ve got……or maybe I was just grateful for the heating! Anyways, I decided to ditch the dull colors you find yourself wearing in the name of staying warm, and be bright and colorful today! And guess what? I totally loved it!

After spending an extra minute powdering my nose (not), I rushed off to the Student’s Union lounge to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Read International, a charity I volunteer with. Read International is based in the United Kingdom and was founded by some students in 2004; they gather primary and secondary school text books and send to schools in Tanzania and Uganda because they share the same curriculum with schools here. I found out about them thanks to a report I had to hand in for my Enterprise module, and I’ve been volunteering ever since!

In my role as Krispy Kreme salesperson!!

I settled in nicely,

Yes o! Getting comfortable with 'the hat'

and fortunately things seemed to be moving faster today than the week when we had a book sale; I mean I did everything but use my fairy powers to make people buy books, for where? Even though the books cost only £1 each! Imagine buying the Guinness Book of World Records (2010 edition o) for £1, amongst other amazing books, and yet people didn’t buy! To be honest, they did, but I wasn’t impressed at all!

Still getting used to the idea....see all the boxes on the side?

Anyways, today seemed like a good day. Andy Watt went with me and did a great job of convincing, cajoling, arm twisting, *insert any other similar word here* people to buy the doughnuts, and boy did he rake in a sale! Thank you Andy!

I learnt a couple things about human beings today from the people who stopped by our table, whether they bought or not.

1. Peer pressure is powerful! Whether you like it or not, it is!! Some ladies passed by, and eventually came to the table, and one of them (I think the leader of the clique) said she wanted one doughnut. I gave it to her, and she turned to her buddies and said, ‘aren’t you guys buying any’, and like jazz, see ladies collecting doughnuts! Ah ha! And from the look on one of the ‘followers’ faces, she just might have been allergic to pastry!

2. This is probably a wrong analogy but my dad always said that for 419 to ‘catch someone’, the person must have already reached 417, or 418! Someone bought a doughnut today, and made sure she said (at least 1000 times) that she was buying because she had heard us ‘calling out’. In my mind I thought, ‘yeah, you walking past our table every two minutes would have definitely ensured that you would hear us ‘call out’; it was in your mind jor!

3. There’s no limit to what people will do when they believe in something – some guy came to the table and said he had just heard what the sale (and the charity) was about and what the money would be used for and so he just wanted to donate, not buy any doughnuts. He did, and I was touched… seriously!

My classmates came by……Leonie, Karen, and Jason, it was wonderful to have them there! Plus I think the hats on all of us looked lovely!

The ladies of the Social Media Army (kitted in Krispy Kreme hats)!!

I had a great time, didn’t think I would have this much fun! Did I mention it’s my first time of doing a bake sale? And so what if I bought one doughnut for myself!!

It’s really fulfilling working for Read International because I know the doughnuts we sold today will contribute to the transportation and placement of books in the hands of children less fortunate than I am. That works more wonders in the mind than you know!

This is the best picture ever!!

P:S – We have a target to raise a little amount of money before the end of March, guess how I plan to raise mine? If your guess’s got two ‘K’s’ in it, buy yourself a drink – you’re right!

I know Iyke, I know how excited I felt at the end of yesterday!! We (ndi b’anyi) need to inculcate that culture of ‘doing stuff without expecting any reward, doing it just because we know it will profit someone less fortunate than we are in the long run… It’s a really good feeling!

Very True….the less will always be blessed of the Better (Heb7:7)….By the way i will really want to know how the International Women’s day went down in your area…Kudos for being a woman…alot of woman are holding their own in the men’s world and alot are upcoming like you..can’t imagine it without women just like God couldn’t imagine Adam without Eve….God bless Womenfolk!

Well, today’s also pancake day here (or something like that) so there was lots of activity around that. I had uni so I was in school for most of the day. We commemorated the day on my show last week, and I’m trusting we will do that tomorrow as well!! God bless the men too!